A dynamic archive of our past speakers; from 1987 to the present day.

Stephen Greenblatt

The Event

The Harvard scholar and Shakespeare guru Greenblatt is best known as the founder of ‘New Historicism‘ Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University, editor of The Norton Shakespeare, and prize-winning author of academic books including Hamlet in Purgatory, Stephen Greenblatt garnered a 2004 National Book Award nomination for his eye-opening look at the life and career of William Shakespeare.

Context

The Speaker:

Stephen Jay Greenblatt (born November 7, 1943) is an American literary critic, theorist and scholar.

Greenblatt is regarded by many as one of the founders of New Historicism, a set of critical practices that he often refers to as “cultural poetics”; his works have been influential since the early 1980s when he introduced the term. Greenblatt has written and edited numerous books and articles relevant to new historicism, the study of culture, Renaissance studies and Shakespeare studies and is considered to be an expert in these fields. He is also co-founder of the literary-cultural journal Representations, which often publishes articles by new historicists. His most popular work is Will in the World, a biography of Shakespeare that was on the New York TimesBest Seller List for nine weeks.[1]